“In times of crisis, we must all decide again and again
whom we love.” – Frank O’Hara

Upon announcement of the fast-track removal policy (2019)
BY ĐENISE HẠNH HUỲNH

ICE is detaining U.S. citizens
while white women in my life
go to Belle & Sebastian concerts

at the zoo
invite me to ice cream socials
on the porch

fuck browner men
they wouldn’t open up their legs for
2 years ago.

I read my mother’s mail
after we eat too many crab legs
at Teppanyaki Grill & Supreme Buffet

spit out paperwork we need to file
& fill in order

She can’t hear me

She lost an ear to a fever at 16.

You lost your masculinity
to the Chinese Exclusion Act
before your father ever stepped foot

in America

We all lose things.
I make a list

of what I need

to survive this time & place

Tomorrow morning
I will eat radishes

drenched in butter

& find out how far
our Minneapolis birth certificates
will take us.

We the Gathered Heat, edited by Franny Choi, Bao Phi, Noʻu Revilla & Terisa Siagatonu, Haymarket Books, 2024.